Over the past six weeks I have tested out a few different subscription services to see which was the best, from beauty packs to meal plans and tasty beverages. But my ultimate winner has to be Gousto, the recipe box delivered fresh to your door.
You get the ingredients and instructions for a selection of meals, while the quality of produce was brilliant. The meals were simply sublime!
But unlike another recipe box (which will remain unnamed), they don’t sneak in mysterious sauces with no names, meaning you feel capable of making the meal again, something I love.
Below I will list the four meals I tried in order of my favourites:
Honey Mustard Pigs in Blankets Brioche with Stuffing Fries
I had never contemplated pigs in blankets in a burger, but this was scrumptious. Encased in the brioche bun, which adds that subtle sweetness, the sauce was also brilliant.
The crust on the chips from the stuffing worked so well, another thing I had never contemplated before. The quantity was also perfect, keeping us full till dinner time.
The instructions were easy to follow along to, however the salad was the only part that was a little dull, but when is a salad ever the key, that’s just the side health-boost. The burger truly was the star of the meal.
Baked Hake with Soy Honey Butter and Pak Choi
I’ve never cooked hake before. In fact, I’d never eaten hake before. It wasn’t a fish I was aware of, I’m truly addicted to salmon, but this was very new to me. Well, since then it has been added to my regular week shop as I’m a hake convert.
Easily baked in the oven with rice vinegar and a few other tasty ingredients to season it, this meal was brilliant. Considering the rice didn’t have any additions, I did pour on some soy sauce at the end. I loved the cashews on the fish and mixed into the rice as well.
My only change would be to have cut the pak choi up and to have fried it in small pieces so it had a bit of bite to it.
One Pot Slow Braised Mushroom Rogan Josh
Ok, I’m a meat eater, so I would much prefer to swap out the mushroom for some beef or lamb and slow cook it, but the Rogan Josh curry was incredible.
It had a beautiful soft kick to it, with the room filling with the aroma of the curry, while the warm naan bread was the perfect accompaniment. It was also nice to mix in the Greek yogurt, which I kept separate for the photo but it made the meal that little more creamy.
I would certainly order this one again, but I’d be curious to find out if they have a meat alternative option.
Chicken Linguine with Tomatoes and Chilli
I’ve placed this one last, not because I didn’t like it, as I very much enjoyed it, but because it was something I already knew how to make, whereas the others offered something new to me.
My eagerness for box sets like Gousto is that you can learn about new meals, new sauces or ingredients or new concepts in the kitchen.
I wish we had a pasta maker, so we could have had a crack at making fresh pasta and then following these instructions along to make the sauce and other ingredients ready.
I can most definitely recommend Gousto as a brilliant concept, a decent price and the best subscription service in the UK for 2024!